About us
We are a highly experienced, highly regarded team with many years of successful experience practising in Ireland.
Aileen Garrihy, BSc (Hons) Occupational Therapy; Psychotherapist IRRAPT (UK) Cognitive Analytic Psychotherapy;
YTT200 Yoga Teacher Training.
Gerry Kelly, B.Agr.Sc; MAgr.Sc; Dip Gestalt therapy.
Aileen Garrihy
Aileen Garrihy is a Cognitive Analytic Psychotherapist and Occupational Therapist with over 20 years experience in mental health. Her areas of expertise are eating disorders and anxiety disorders. As a relational psychotherapist, and influenced by recent studies on the impact of trauma on body and mind, she has undertaken yoga teacher training to integrate nervous system regulation into her work. Her focus is on the interplay between internalised (learnt) ways of being in the world, and the impact this has had in the past, (and continues to have in the present), on the nervous system. Supporting clients to understand their experiences of relational trauma and how they currently manage the impact, eg eating disorder, she works to support clients to regulate their nervous systems in more compassionate ways. Aileen believes full recovery from an eating disorder is possible.
She was director of training for the Irish Association for Cognitive Analytic Therapy from 2012 – 2021.
Gerry Kelly
Gerry’s core training is in Gestalt psychotherapy. He runs a private, supervised practice in Wicklow for the last 16 years and is accredited with IAHIP, he has recently trained in Internal Family Systems therapy.
He is also a trained group facilitator and served as a trainer for the ICPPD Bachelor of Arts in Holistic Counselling and Psychotherapy degree. What he likes about the Gestalt approach is how the therapist tries to be present to the client and brings herself/himself into the work, thus developing a trusting, supportive relationship. He particularly likes how Gestalt Therapy strongly encourages the client to take responsibility for making changes in their life and how it encourages them to tap in to their own resources and their own inner strength, thus empowering them. He believes that the answers always come from within.
Gerry has also done training in Family Constellations and this greatly facilitates holding in his awareness the client’s family of origin in a non-judgemental way. This is generally proves invaluable in helping to see the client in the context of their family system and thus the bigger picture. This family systemic work can facilitate rapid insight into a clients beliefs, values, attitudes and gives valuable clues about their learned interruptions and blockages which may now be stopping them from living a full life.
Wholeness is always central to the Gestalt philosophy. The notion that to be fully alive and capable of achieving our full potential we have to integrate mind, body and soul in a harmonious whole. Gerry likes the idea that a therapist should look at their client as if they have a golden centre, a precious place where the hidden person inside is a healthy, functioning, normal human with a bit of the divine enfolded in their being. Seeing the person behind the disorder is where the challenge and excitement is for a Gestalt therapist.
Over the last 10 years, Gerry has specialised in the treatment of Eating Disorders in his private practice in Wicklow and in various eating Disorder clinics.